Month: November, 2011

Time flies when you’re studying English apparently, ‘cause in 2 ½ weeks it’s…ta-dah! Winter Break*! Which means that (asides from studying like a mofo for my exams in January of course) I’ll FINALLY have time to start working on my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project, which has been lying around here since the end of August and is still completely blank.

I have thought a lot about what I want to do with it and how I’m going to do that. Since drawing isn’t my strongest point (understatement of the century), I’ll have to find other ways to get my message across. I don’t want to just use text for two reasons: 1) it’s a sketchbook, not a notebook; 2) I’m trying to push myself out of my comfort zone and do something I’ve never done before. And I’ve done text. Lots of it. 5 NaNoWriMo’s of it. And then some.

Looking at what people did last year has proven to be very helpful. People interpret the same theme in completely different ways, some keep it very literal while others seem to barely adhere to the theme at all. And then there’s the multitude of styles and techniques used, from minimalistic to very elaborate. I haven’t decided yet what techniques and materials I’m going to use, but it’s nice to get an idea of the possibilities and to ‘think outside the box’. Or cage, if you’re a rat.

I was going to elaborate on the theme I chose (“Encyclopedia of”) and what I’m going to do with it, but this post is already reaching tl;dr, so I’ll write a separate post about that later this week.

I was thinking of writing a post on my inability to take notes like a normal person, but then realised it’d be more fun to just scan my actual notes. If you click on the image below, you’ll be transported magically to Flickr, where you can mouseover for more details! Enjoy!

My classmates are pretty damn awesome. No, not because they all thought I was “25, tops” when they first met me (though that was pretty hilarious) but because of conversations like this:

Classmate 1: “Who’s the dude on the cover of our theory book?”
Me: “That’s Judith Butler.”
Classmate 1: “No, I mean, the dude.”
Me: “That’s not a dude, that’s Judith Butler.”
Classmate 2, laptop in front of him: “Who?”
Me: “Judith Butler. The God of Hellfire.”
Teacher, overhears and interrupts: “Who’s the God of Hellfire?”
Me: “Judith Butler.”
Teacher, gushing: “OhIknowrightshesoooamazing!!! I met her at a conference once!”
Me: “REALLY? That’s SO AWESOME!”
The teacher and I then proceeded to fangirl for a good 5 minutes. Like you do.

I was going through my notes (more on my inability to take notes like a normal person later) and found some sound bites, courtesy of two of my teachers. To maximize your experience, pretend you’re me, sitting in a class room with 15 other students, being one of the few who thinks this is hilarious. Enjoy!

First up is T., who according to a couple of my classmates, is “a hottie”, which is why they’re too busy ogling him to hear him say stuff like:

“Hi, I’m T! I’m from Chicago, came here to study, stayed for a woman. Also, I’m completely hopped up on painkillers!” [introducing himself at the beginning of the first class of the year.]

“Think of it as Goldilocks living in a student apartment: “Who’s been messing with my computer?”

Completely deadpan: “Get busy? No, that’s sex.” [Correcting a student who read out his translation which should have said something along the lines of “and then she went to work”]

And then there’s J., who is either loved or hated, but mostly feared for being “a radical feminist”. I think she’s pretty awesome, especially when she says things like:

“Who wants to be picked on? Who’s a masochist? *points at dude named Christian* “Christian? You seem like one. Aren’t all Christians masochists?”

While reading an essay out loud: “…women are stuck in a minty position…” *literally folds over laughing, almost headdesks* “Minty position? That’s the BEST TYPO EVER!”

“Don’t be a d*ck!” [to classmate P., who suffers from White Male Talking Syndrome and who was on his daily ‘feminism is STOOOPID’-rant again]

“Dave, Nadia and Kelly, could you read the next three sentences please?” to my classmates J., S. and me. We collectively cracked up and weren’t able to read any sentences for the next 3 minutes, while our teacher went: “Peter? No?” to J., “Annabel? Something with an A?” to S., and ”But you, you look like a Kelly!” to me.